"I want to show the people that even those in high positions are equal before the law."
Punch is a fantastic drama that shows how hard it is to take even one more step towards a world like that. The writer Park Kyung Soo's previous dramas also dealt with corruption and the fight against powerful people and with Punch he delivered another amazing drama on this topic.
What first drew me into Punch when I started it was that our protagonist is just as cold-blooded and ruthless as the main villain. He is the one who helped the villain to get his position, but when he discovers that he only has a couple of months left to live and people start to mess with him, he decides that he can't be the only one going down. His journey of trying to take down the other corrupt people leading the prosecutor's office is thrilling to watch and kept me glued to the screen not wanting to miss even one second! The plot moves fast, giving you twists and turns at every corner. It might even be frustrating to watch, because for every step the lead comes closer to winning he gets pushed back just as much. Since most of the drama takes place in the prosecutor's office it could have become dry, but the plot was always presented with just the right amount of feelings that I was 100% emotionally invested in the story. Punch also has one of the best final episodes and endings that I've seen so far. It wrapped everything up realistically and I can't think of anything I'm not satisfied with!
Aside from the story itself the strength of this drama are its fascinating characters. This drama doesn't have the usual black or white characters; they come in all shades of grey and it was captivating to watch and see in which direction of the good and evil scale they would develop. Our anti-hero Jung Hwan actually does some really despicable things at the start of the drama that usually you'd only see a villain do. Tae Joon, the main villain, is one of the most fascinating villains I've ever seen (I'd put him up there with Mishil, for those of you that have seen Queen Seon Duk) and I loved that he wasn't the usual cold guy without feelings who has never even heard of the word loyalty before (although that doesn't necessarily mean he can't throw it away). I actually have so much to say about the character development, but it is one of the points that make this drama so awesome and I don't want to spoil it.
The actors and their portrayal were as awesome as these characters deserved and especially Jo Jae Hyun as Tae Joon stole the spotlight for me. Kim Rae Won also showed an engaging performance as the anti-hero, which caused me the dilemma of wanting him to take everyone down but at the same time hoping that Tae Joon's downfall wouldn't be too hard. The only small complaint I have is that the female main character seemed less complex than the rest. She was pretty much the only non-corrupted character in this show and therefore very much needed as a good example, but in my opinion that also caused her to fall a bit flat compared to the others.
The third aspect I really loved about this drama is the dialogue! Coming from this writer intelligent dialogue is a given, but I want to point out how creative his metaphors are. A lot of them were related to food and I always found myself looking out for the next one, because they brought across the points of the characters so well. In line with the drama's title there were also a lot of hard-hitting lines that must have felt like a strong punch to the stomach to whoever they were directed at. (Oh, and since I'm already talking about the title, be aware that some things the characters do or say might make you want to punch your screen!)
Now since my review is getting too long and in case all of my rambling was too much to read, here's the tl;dr version:
Thrilling drama with brilliant writing and acting, awesome dialogues and fascinating characters! In my opinion a must watch for everyone who likes dramas dealing with serious topics!
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